Thursday, December 31, 2015

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Books I've Read in 2015


It's interesting to look back on these lists. Maybe you like looking at them, too. Here's the 2015 reading list...


  1. Icy Sparks by Gwyn Rubio (for Book Club)
  2. Home Grown: Adventures in Parenting off the Beaten Path, Unschooling, and Reconnecting with the Natural World by Ben Hewitt (read aloud with Bryan)
  3. A Little Salty to Cut the Sweet: Southern Stories of Faith, Family, and Fifteen Pounds of Bacon by Sophie Hudson
  4. For the Children's Sake: Foundations of Education for Home and School by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay
  5. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (love)
  6. Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder (read aloud (again) as a family)
  7. The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion (for Book Club)
  8. Counter Culture by David Platt
  9. Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
  10. Meadowland: The Private Life of an English Field by John Lewis-Stempel
  11. Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv
  12. For the Love by Jen Hatmaker
  13. Teaching from Rest: A Homeschooler's Guide to Unshakable Peace by Sarah Mackenzie and Dr. Christopher Perrin
  14. The Shepherd's Life: Modern Dispatches from an Ancient Landscape by James Rebanks
  15. Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi (read aloud to the boys)
  16. Poor Richard’s Almanack by Benjamin Franklin
  17. Good Night, Mr. Tom by Michelle Magorian
  18. Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession by Julie Powell
  19. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer (for Book Club)
  20. The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks (read aloud)
  21. The Nourishing Homestead: One Back-to-the-Land Family's Plan for Cultivating Soil, Skills, and Spirit by Ben Hewitt and Penny Hewitt
  22. The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler (I wish that I had not read this one. I should have just put it down after the first few chapters.)
  23. All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor (read aloud)
  24. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson (read aloud)
    25.
    The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin 


     *This list does not include the hundreds of picture books that I read with Seth and Silas. 

    See also 

Sunday, December 27, 2015

{Christmas} 2015

Christmas 2015 was...
simple and special
 
filled with family
a few gifts
and our Happy Birthday, Jesus party
in the barn.
It was probably my favorite Christmas ever!
 

Monday, December 21, 2015

{Gratitude} Lately

 Lately, I've been thankful for...
sunny afternoons at the park
 billboards on the interstate that lead to a quick pit stop
 Thursday mornings
 a Nana's love
 the Boyce Christmas parade
 good coffee and chess with a six year old
a heart filled walnut
 and for friends that are more like family.

"Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, 
it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude." A.A. Milne

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

from the {Little Barn Kitchen}

 a peek at what I've been cooking and we've been eating/drinking...
{Main Meals} 
(local) pork roast (slow cooked in the crockpot) 
and (local) greens served over mashed (local) potatoes
(homegrown) grilled chicken 
This was amazing!
  
When we had our last round of chickens processed, we had 5 chickens cut up into pieces. 
(It costs more to cut the birds into pieces.) One night, it was getting late and I still needed to cook dinner. It was so nice to quickly thaw and cook some chicken breasts (instead of a whole chicken) for dinner. These are the breasts from two chickens which varied in size significantly.
  
jalepeno sheep's milk cheese grits in a (local) tomato
I did not want this meal to end.
  
(homegrown) chicken (gluten free) noodle soup with cornbread
I made borscht using (local) cabbage and beets, and (homegrown) tomatoes 
and I was the only one in the family that liked it. 
  
(local) pumpkin, potatoes, (local) sausage, and (local) kale soup 
with a drizzle of heavy cream
 rice, (homegrown) chicken broth, (local) swiss chard, 
green onions, (homegrown) poached egg, and sriracha

 {Sweets}
gluten free pumpkin filled pie pockets
(I used Bob's Red Mill gluten free pie pastry mix.)






Tuesday, November 17, 2015

HOME Sweet Homestead

It definitely feels like fall on the homestead. Things seem to be winding down. Chores do not take as long these days and we are getting all the animals settled for winter. 
The house is decorated with some of the tiny pumpkins/gourds we grew this year.
 We've had quite a year with sheep!
We stopped moving the sheep through the pastures about three weeks ago. They will have access to the barn throughout the winter and we have our hay ready for them to eat. 
The sheep we were hosting left last Friday. We still have an extra dog until December, but then she will go to her new home.
 In May, three lambs were born. 
Unfortunately, by October, two of our lambs died (from worms). 
It was hard and sad, but it's a part of this lifestyle.
 Our payment for hosting the extra sheep for the last few months was this new girl. 
Her name is Sylvia. 
She is pure bred Cotswold, has super dark wool,
 and is a lot younger than our other ewes.
Sylvia and our other 3 ewes are currently being bred right now at our friends' farm. 
That means that our one little surviving lamb (Opal) and the two dogs have the barn to themselves. 
We also let Opal roam around the house to let her eat the clover which she loves.
We thought we would have to process our ducks ourselves, 
but we found a processor who processes ducks, 
so at the end of August we had 8 ducks processed.
Our turkeys were processed with our second round of 29 meat chickens. 
I miss them, but we have 5 turkeys in the freezer along with hopefully enough chickens to last us until next year. 
All (15) of our laying hens are laying eggs now. 
So we have an abundance of eggs!
(We are selling our extras for $3 a dozen if you are a local and want some.)  
Speaking of eggs, the ducklings born in the Spring that we didn't process have just started laying eggs. 
We are not collecting those, so we'll see what happens. 
 
Shortly after we received a buck and a doe from a friend, our buck died. So our two does (who were not bred like I thought they were) spend their time eating lots of tasty scraps. We've got a new buck coming in the next few weeks.
Our mushroom logs have started fruiting! 
The fall garden is tiny (so tiny we signed up for the Rough Draft Farmstead fall CSA
compared to our spring and summer garden.
 I did plant 100 garlic cloves the other day for next year. 
All of the cloves came from the garlic I harvested from the garden this year
 and we still have lots of garlic to spare. 
Maybe with the shorter days we can focus our time on some indoor projects in the coming weeks. 
There's a to-do list that is a mile long, but then again, we might just rest.

Monday, November 9, 2015

{Gratitude} Lately

I needed a little break...but now I'm back. 
So, lately I've been grateful for...
midday gluten free pie breaks
 sipping tea and reading good books
 6 am chess games with this one
spotting a very special road sign
 and 
for hayloft adventures

Monday, September 28, 2015

Little Barn Academy {First Grade}

We started our ninth week of first grade today. 
This year we have embraced the Charlotte Mason philosophy of education in our home. 
I discovered who Charlotte Mason was and her philosophy of education late into our kindergarten year, but after reading and researching, I fell in love. 
I am generally following the Ambleside Online Year 1 with a few tweaks here and there for our family. We use Singapore Math, Apologia Science, and add in Story of the World for history.  
 
 We spend our days reading lots and lots.
We study nature and journal about it.
 We study artists, composers, and sing hymns.
 We play games often
and sometimes take school on the road.
 
  
We go to the library at least once a week (sometimes twice) and we've gotten in the habit of stopping by our favorite local coffee shop to read a few of the books we checked out.
 
 Our days are gentle and peaceful (for the most part).
It seems so weird to even share that, but it's true. 
It's the total opposite of my public school teaching days. 
I wouldn't trade Little Barn Academy for those days for anything.